


A Different Kind of Game

by nessarose413



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Based on a Dream, Ensemble Cast, Fan Killing Game (Dangan Ronpa), Game Shows, Gen, Horror, Light Angst, Mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:27:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23162488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nessarose413/pseuds/nessarose413
Summary: “I’m afraid you don’t have much of a choice in the matter. You might have spoiled my mastermind reveal,” she said, looking directly at Shuichi, “but our viewers are still expecting at least nine more episodes before the season wraps up, and none of us are leaving here until the end of the week.”Tsumugi sighed and pressed several more buttons. The keyboard in front of her glowed red for a moment, and then folded away completely into the desk it had appeared from. She pulled her Monopad out and turned back around to the group in front of her."So," she smiled.“Who’s ready for a different kind of killing game?”
Relationships: Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 12
Kudos: 42





	1. The Reveal

“So you figured it out, huh?” Tsumugi said, sounding just slightly disappointed. The rest of her classmates looked at her from the other end of the classroom; some in surprise, some in disbelief, and others in anger. Their faces were bathed in the light of the projector she had tried so desperately tried to cover up, now displaying the Team Danganronpa logo across the whiteboard for everyone to see. Tsumugi sighed, and pressed a few buttons. The screen went dark. “I guess I wasn’t as good of a mastermind as they thought I’d be. Oh, well. That’s what Plan B’s for. So…”

Tsumugi sighed and pressed several more buttons. The keyboard in front of her glowed red for a moment, and then folded away completely into the desk it had appeared from. She pulled her Monopad out and turned back around to the group in front of her. She smiled.

“Who’s ready for a different kind of killing game?”

The room was silent for a moment, except for the sound of the air conditioner humming quietly. Several of the students looked confused. Others seemed uneasy. One or two stood still, waiting to see what happened next. Despite their resolve in ending the killing game by confronting Tsumugi, no one knew what to say. Kaede was the first to speak up.

“What do you mean?” She took a step forward and looked at Tsumugi intently, waiting for a response.

Tsumugi didn’t say anything. She was busy typing something out on her Monopad. A moment later, the monitor in the room lit up. So did the projector and all of the students’ Monopads. A very obviously prerecorded video of Monokuma appeared on every screen and in unison, they all played the same message.

“Greetings, kiddos! If you’re watching this, you’ve found a way to end the killing game. Congratulations!” 

Monokuma gleefully waved his arms as he pranced about the screen.

“Unfortunately for you, we’re not gonna let you go that easily. That’s why we have another protocol in store. A Plan B, if you will.”

Himiko looked up from her screen at Kaede and asked, “Nyeh? What’s he talking ab--” before Monokuma’s cartoonish voice cut her off.

“From this point forward, five of you will be randomly assigned as killers. Your job is to hunt down one student each and kill them. Simple as that! Do this, and you get to leave. No secrecy required or anything. If all five of you reach this goal in the next seven days, you and any remaining survivors can go free.”  
A few of the students began to whisper to each other, but Kirumi silenced them with a wave of her arm, trying to hear the rest of Monokuma’s message.

“Oh! That reminds me. The rest of you are going to be classified as survivors. Your job is even easier. Just stay alive until time runs out. If you’re still here at the end of the week, props to you! You can go right back home and forget all about this. Don’t say I never did anything nice for ya. Oh, and one more thing.” Monokuma leaned closer to the screen. His inanimate eyes seemed to darken. “If each killer doesn’t manage to nab at least one survivor, all five of you will be executed.”

The students stood paralyzed. Kaede looked up at Tsumugi in horror, missing Monokuma’s sinister “Good Luck!” and signature cackle as the video cut out.

Kaito slammed his fist down on a desk. “Like hell I’m gonna do something like that!” He looked around at his classmates, waiting for someone to back him up. Tenko. Shuichi. Rantaro. Kaede. Anyone. But they didn’t hear him. Their eyes were locked on their screens, still processing what they’d just heard. Behind Tsumugi’s gentle smile was a hint of smugness.

“I’m afraid you don’t have much of a choice in the matter. You might have spoiled my mastermind reveal,” she said, looking directly at Shuichi, “but our viewers are still expecting at least nine more episodes before the season wraps up, and none of us are leaving here until the end of the week.”

Shuichi shrunk into himself at the intensity of Tsumugi’s gaze. Despite Kaede’s encouragement towards his efforts to investigate the school and find the mastermind, he’d still managed to fail her. How could he have been so shortsighted, to think that anything he did could save anyone? He pulled his cap down and squeezed his eyes shut, willing himself to stay calm while everyone was looking at him.

Tsumugi’s Monopad made a noise. She looked down at it briefly, and then back up.

“By the way, your updated roles should be coming in any minute now,” she said. The students all looked down at their own Monopads expectantly.

All at once, five screens lit up, illuminating the faces of their owners bright red. The other students took a few steps back. Tsumugi addressed the five still standing in place.

“Kaito. Kokichi. Kirumi. Korekiyo. Kiibo. You have been chosen as this game’s killers. You know what you have to do. When you’re done, report back to me. I’ll be in the library, waiting for you.” She then looked around at the other students, analyzing each one. “The rest of you may roam the campus freely. All Ultimate Labs and other areas have been opened for you. Your Monopads will tell you how much time you have left.”

“And what about you?!” Kaito interjected.

“Yeah,” added Miu, “What are you gonna be doing while we bust our asses out there trying to stay alive?”

Tsumugi’s eyes turned cold.

“Well, thanks to your detective’s work today,” she said pointedly, “I don’t get to play anymore.” She took slow strides towards the door with more authority than any of them had ever seen from her.

“I’m just here to watch you all scatter like mice.”

Tsumugi typed something on her Monopad one last time. Suddenly, a circle of metal bars dropped from the ceiling and landed with a THUD on the grassy floor of the classroom, encircling the five killers and trapping them inside. Immediately, Kaito and Kiibo began grabbing at the bars desperately, trying to free themselves. Kirumi, Korekiyo, and Kokichi, however, remained idle.

“Survivors: you have twenty minutes to hide. I suggest you use it.” With that, Tsumugi walked out the door, leaving it open behind her.

Seeing no one else make any move to lead, Kaede stepped ahead of the group and grabbed Shuichi’s hand.

“Come on,” she said, “We’ve got to go.”

With that, ten frightened students exited the classroom one by one and ran as fast as they could; fleeing like mice from a cage of unwilling tigers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, confession: This fic is based very closely on a really weird dream I had about a month ago. I was replaying V3, and the plot was different. When I woke up, I tried to write down everything as close as I remembered... and this was the result. Thank you for reading, and the next update should be out soon!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time is ticking. With only four minutes left to prepare for the inevitable, what will our heroes do?

Sixteen minutes later, Kaito Momota was feeling restless. The cage felt too small, like it would crush him if he stayed there too long. He did his best to maneuver around its four other occupants, shaking the bars, looking for some way out.

“You really shouldn’t bother,” said Kokichi, sitting down with his back rested against the bars. “Shirogane told us we only had to wait here for twenty minutes.” He yawned dramatically. “We’re not in danger of anything except being bored to death.”

“Cut it out, Kokichi!” Kaito snapped. “Don’t you ever think about anything but yourself? We’ve gotta get out of here so we can help the others escape!”

Kaito turned to the others in the cage, looking for backup.

“Kirumi, you get it, right? As the Ultimate Maid, your whole thing is helping other people!” Kaito tried to meet Kirumi’s eyes, but she would not look at him.

“It is my job to be of assistance to others. That is correct,” Kirumi said quietly. “As we’ve already exhausted our other options of escape, I plan to do my part in this as quickly and efficiently possible so that ten of us may be released.”

“You can’t be serious! We--”

“If you have a better idea, Kaito, I’d love to hear it.” Upon realizing how harsh she sounded, Kirumi took a moment to steady herself before continuing. “But at the end of the day, at least five of us must die so that the other ten may live.” She walked closer to him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I regret my role in this as much as you do, but fighting against it will only cause more damage. Please try to understand.”

Kaito was shaking. Not out of fear or anger at Kirumi, but frustration over the circumstances they had been thrown into. He thought about the faces of his classmates. Kaede’s gentle smile; Ryoma’s calm disposition; Angie’s positivity; Shuichi’s timidness. He didn’t want to think about any of them being… gone.

He brushed off Kirumi’s gloved hand and glanced between the other three. Kokichi was still reclining on the floor, pretending not to eavesdrop on Kaito and Kirumi’s conversation. Korekiyo’s eyes were closed, as if he were deep in thought. Kiibo--

Kiibo wasn’t moving.

“Kiibo?” Kaito approached him cautiously. Kiibo hadn’t moved from where he had been standing for the past five minutes. His metallic arms stood stiffly at his sides, and he was facing away from the other four, staring through the bars of the cage. Kaito approached him and leaned to his left to try and get a glimpse at his face. When he did, he noticed Kiibo’s normally piercing blue eyes weren’t focused on anything at all.

Instead, they were showing nothing but static. Kaito rapidly turned back around and looked at the other three.

“Hey, uh, guys?” He waved a hand in front of Kiibo’s face. Nothing happened. “I think there’s something wrong with Kiibo.”

* * *

In the same minute, two floors down, Kaede Akamatsu and her classmates prepared for the worst. After they reevaluated the size of the campus and concluded that running would do them no good, all ten of the designated survivors decided to head to the basement and barricade themselves in. They had already tried several of the recently opened Ultimate Labs, but decided instead to utilize the game room. It wasn’t a permanent solution, but it would give them a space to plan in before they were inevitably discovered by their classmates. As the others around her worked to barricade the exits and discuss strategy, Kaede observed from the corner. She was starting to get lost in her own thoughts when she felt a hand tap on her shoulder.

“Kaede,” a voice said quietly. She turned to her right and looked up to see Gonta Gokuhara standing sheepishly beside her. He looked worried.

“What’s wrong, Gonta?” Kaede asked.

“What should Gonta do if killers find friends?” Gonta responded. “Gonta wants to keep friends safe from harm, but weren’t killers friends, too? Will Gonta have to hurt friends?”

Kaede didn’t know how to respond. In truth, she had been struggling over what she should do about the situation herself. Now that Monokuma had been destroyed, there was no chance that he would attack them for not complying with the rules, but she had no idea what other dangers the school had in store for them; and as much as Kaede wanted to trust that her classmates would not harm each other, she’d only known them for a few days. Who knew what any of them were capable of?

Kaede put on the bravest face she could, and answered Gonta by saying, “We’ll make sure it doesn’t come to that. One way or another, we’re going to get out of here together.”

Gonta visibly relaxed.

“Thank you, Kaede!” he said with a smile. “Gonta will trust Kaede and friends.”

“In the meantime, Gonta, why don’t you go help Ryoma? It looks like he’s having trouble moving some of the furniture.” Sure enough, Ryoma Hoshi was standing behind one of the game machines, silently struggling to push it towards the door. Ryoma was an athlete, yes, but his talent was in his quick reflexes and agility. His strength, though impressive in proportion to his small stature, was simply not enough to do much heavy lifting. Gonta walked over to the other side of the machine and grabbed it from behind, lifting it clear off the ground with almost no visible effort.

“Here, Ryoma, let Gonta help,” Gonta said eagerly. Ryoma reached out to grab the front of the machine, still trying to be helpful, but quickly realized that Gonta was more than capable of carrying it on his own. His shoulders slumped, and he slid his hands back into his pockets.

“Thanks, Gonta,” Ryoma mumbled. “You need help with anything else?”

Gonta smiled sweetly at him.

“No thank you. Gonta is strong enough for much more work! Ryoma does not need to worry.”

Upon hearing this, Ryoma’s heart deflated a little bit. Not saying anything, he gave Gonta a nod and walked away to find something else to occupy himself with. Maki and Miu were discussing strategy with Rantaro, who seemed to be showing them something on his Monopad.

No, Ryoma thought, better leave the heavy thinking to the experts. He looked to the table at the other end of the room and saw Tenko and Himiko bickering. Or, more appropriately, Himiko pacing back and forth, back turned to Tenko, and Tenko following her around like a lost puppy. Ryoma didn’t want to think about walking into whatever emotional minefield that would inevitably turn out to be. Angie was praying, Gonta was still diligently moving the furniture over to the door, and Kaede was standing in the corner; a fearless leader watching over them all.

Ryoma wondered what it would be like to be a leader. In what felt like a past life, he had been a tennis captain. He thought back to the time his teammates presented him with a “Most Valuable Player” award at the team’s yearly banquet. It felt like so long ago.

Kaede didn’t need him.

With no other options in sight, Ryoma studied Shuichi Saihara. With the chair he’d been sitting on taken away by Gonta, he stood against the wall uncomfortably, avoiding looking in any one direction too long. His dark hair fell over his eyes, casting his face in shadow. Ryoma could recognize a certain sadness in Shuichi, although what may have caused it, he did not know. Everything about him reeked of guilt. Shuichi, much like himself, seemed to be running from his past. There was one difference between them, though. Unlike Ryoma, Shuichi still had a future.

Shuichi seemed surprised when Ryoma approached him and leaned against the wall beside him. He didn’t look like he knew what to say, so Ryoma started.

“It looks like you’re not doing much in the way of helping,” he said. Shuichi’s eyes widened.

“I’m sorry! I’d love to help, it’s just that I--” Ryoma cut him off.

“Don’t know where you’re needed?” Ryoma asked gently.

“Yeah,” Shuichi said, looking at the floor. Ryoma let out a hollow laugh.

“I understand,” he admitted. “Everyone here has something to contribute. They’ve only just met, and they’re already working like a team; keeping each other alive. It can be tough; looking as an outsider for a place in all that.” The two stood in silence for a minute, letting all the other sounds from the room wash over them. Ryoma’s eyes wandered back over to Kaede.

“You and Kaede seem pretty close,” he said out of the blue. Shuichi peered down at him, looking a little surprised (and a little bit hopeful). He opened his mouth to explain, or maybe argue, but all that came out was,

“Really?”

“I don’t mean anything much by it,” Ryoma explained, “But you two seem to work together well. I think this is the first time I’ve seen you separated since the start of the investigation.” He paused. “You should tell her I said goodbye.”

“What?!” Shuichi looked shocked. The corner of Ryoma’s mouth turned up, ever so slightly. On anyone else, it would have looked almost like a smile.

“I’ve been thinking…. I’m not much use to all of you here. I’m not as creative or strong as some of you, and I’d just be one more liability to worry about if I stayed,” he continued. “But what I can do is hold my own in a fight. If I split off from the rest of you now, I can try to deal with the killers before any of you have to. At the very least, I can buy you some time.”

“Ryoma, I really think it’d be better if you stayed here with us.” Shuichi glanced towards their fellow classmates. “We can all protect each other. I mean, that’s why we’re here right? There’s strength in numbers. I may not have been a detective for very long, but-” he looked over to where Ryoma was standing, but saw no one there. Shuichi looked around to see where he could have gone. He just barely glimpsed the back of a leather jacket as it ducked out the door.

* * *

  
After what felt like ages, the metal bars abruptly jerked upwards and ascended back into the ceiling. Kokichi fell flat on his back. Korekiyo took a deep breath and opened his eyes. Kiibo remained motionless.

The sound of footsteps echoed down the hallway and through the door. Four sets of eyes looked up as Tsumugi re-entered the room.

“Most of them are in the basement,” she said nonchalantly. “If I were you, I’d start there.”  
“Awwww, thanks Tsumugi!” Kokichi gushed. “But maybe if you wanted to help us, you shouldn’t have locked us up in the first place.”

“You’re really in no place to be complaining right now. Remember, I can make this game a lot harder.” She started to leave again.

“Before you bail on us,” Kokichi called out after her, finally getting up from the ground, “Would you mind explaining what’s the deal with Kii-boy over there? ” He gestured to Kiibo, who still hadn’t moved from where he was standing. His eyes danced with static electricity, and his hair (or whatever the metal plating across his head was meant to look like) seemed to be standing on end. Tsumugi walked up to him, seemingly analyzing every bit of his design. She looked back at Kokichi proudly.

“Unit K1-B0 is property of Team Danganronpa, and was designed to be easily reprogrammable for any situation which might arise during the current season. Since his purpose as a character was compromised after you all set the backup game into action, headquarters thought he would be better repurposed as an…” she paused, looking for the right word, “obstacle. For the other players.”

As if on cue, Kiibo’s eyes came alive again. Instead of his usual pupils, however, the two screens turned a vibrant red. His metal collar slid up from its compartment, concealing his expressionless face and revealing a sensor that had been previously obscured. Tsumugi adressed the other four in the room.

“The infrared sensor will be able to detect any motion in his line of vision.” She waved her hand behind his shoulder to demonstrate. Kiibo’s head whipped around to face her, twisting further than any human’s neck would be able to naturally. A series of red dots of light projected onto Tsumugi’s face.

“If any visual data matches the faces or clothing of one of the survivors, then--” she cut herself off with a giggle that sent chills down Kokichi’s spine, though he did his best not to show it. “Well, I don’t want to spoil anything.”

Without another word, she walked out of the room; presumably to go back to her “secret” room behind the library. After a moment, Kiibo left behind her.

Kokichi turned around and saw Kaito, looking shocked and angry and just a little bit sad. Kokichi couldn’t blame him. If what Tsumugi said was true, then Kiibo was gone. Possibly forever. Anyone could be next. Her words from earlier flashed through his mind: _You know what you have to do_.

And in that moment, he did.

Korekiyo and Kirumi had already left the room quietly, leaving just Kokichi and Kaito. Kokichi started towards the exit when a thought popped into his head, stopping him just as he reached the door.

“Kaito,” he said without turning around.

“What?” Kaito barked at him, irritation leaking into his voice.

“Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”

Without another word, he was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Sorry this update took longer than expected. The further I get into this story, the longer it has taken me to plan out what happens next and adjust my outline accordingly. And although Kiibo and Korekiyo haven't spoken yet, I promise they both serve very important purposes. On that note, I do intend to give every character at least one spotlight moment in this story. The entire V3 cast is so interesting to me, and I don't want any characterization to go to waste.  
> If you have any questions, theories, or general thoughts, leave a comment below! I love hearing from you guys.


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